Newsletter

Conant: Our nation's next Pearl Harbor

I was in New Orleans recently and visited the impressive World War II Museum.

The museum opened as the D-Day Museum in 2000, and in 2003 it was designated by Congress as the National World War II Museum.

After several hours of exhibits, video and aural histories, one becomes immersed in the wartime America of more than 65 years ago. A dominant message that emerges concerns the sacrifices our country made to defeat the Axis enemy. That war was won not only by the 12 million Americans in uniform, but by great sacrifice on the home front.

America did whatever was needed to supply the fighting men with weapons, fuel and food. There were scrap metal and bond drives, gas rationing, sons and husbands gone for years, mothers and daughters working in factories and much, much more.

America was united in defeating an enemy that threatened our way of life.

That time contrasts starkly with America’s experience during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although support for our troops is superb, sacrifices at home have been nearly non-existent. Instead of bond drives to pay for the war, we have tax cuts. With no draft, most families are shielded from the dreadful fear of losing a son, daughter or spouse.

Speaking for the entire military, a Marine scrawled a sign in Ramadi Iraq, “America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war; America is at the mall.”

Today there is a larger message about the lack of sacrifice by Americans. Just as our politicians have given us a war with no pain, except for the military, they are now giving us a lifestyle with no pain.

Politicians on the left tell us they will preserve our unaffordable entitlements. Politicians on the right deliver low taxes with promises of going lower.

Today’s divisive politics have taken these issues beyond the realm of taxation and spending. On both sides, supporters believe in their positions with an uncompromising fervor.

While debates about political differences are necessary, at the end we need to come to agreement, make the necessary sacrifices and move on for the good of the country.

But in our no-pain world, we never reach agreement. We borrow more money and push the accumulating debt onto the shoulders of future generations.

Compared to World War II, our standard of living is at an unimaginable high, and our willingness to sacrifice at a disgusting low.

We are lulled into more borrowing by a leadership too afraid to ask us to compromise and face reality.

The failure of the country to unify and attack the federal debt is partly because it does not have the emotional impact of seeing our fleet lying on the bottom at Pearl Harbor. But make no mistake; the debt crisis we are headed for is silent, insidious and powerful. The damage inflicted on America will last for generations.

At some point the financial markets will decide America no longer has the political will to pay its debts. Then the markets will make a surprise attack that will be the financial equivalent of Pearl Harbor.

In World War II, Pearl Harbor was only the beginning of a time of intense national pain and suffering. Similarly, the financial Pearl Harbor on our horizon will only be the beginning of a long and arduous road to recovery.

Viewing this financial devastation, those who chose adherence to ideology over compromise may come to regret their choice. But it will be too late.

Ed Conant is a retired U.S. Navy officer who lives and writes in Savannah.